Lost Photos During Import

Hello kristenjoy,
The 'delete after import' was just an idea. I am not sure how the loss happens. However, if you still have the memory stick and have NOT used it, you may still be able to recover your photos with recovery software. One of iPhoto's gurus, Old Toad, recommends 'Mediarecover.'
Take a look at this: http://www.mediarecover.com/imagerecoverymac.html

Also, in the future, many of us suggest using Image Capture to download your photos from the camera. (app that comes with your computer, located in 'Applications'). See this: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2403814&#2403814

and this: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2129501&#2129501

for further information regarding using Image Capture.

Same thing happened to me twice as well -

First time a college student I was mentoring tried to import photos into iPhoto 4 (installed on my old but still active B&W G3) from my Sony camera, and apparently accidentally closed or quit iPhoto during the import. She lost some really great shots of equine dentistry being performed on my horse.

The second time happened just now, when I went to import from my brand new Nikon D70 into iPhoto 5 on my PowerMac G5. I realized I was importing some photos already imported and canceled the import to perform it manually, and lost every photo on the memory card - only small fragments around the edges are visible. These include some before and after photos of my new home, and I'm pretty upset about this.

Sorry, I can't answer your question, but found this while trying to search for ways to recover damaged photos from the memory card, and thought I'd chime in so you know you are not alone. Has anyone noticed a problem with losing photos after you interrupt import? iPhoto is not asking me to re-import files after the first time I canceled the import. Like Kristen, I'd like to try and recover those files if possible!

PowerMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Kristenjoy and Catdoctor: Beverly has hit the nail on the head, I suspect.

If you haven't written anything new to your memory cards since the photos disappeared from them, you may want to try using PhotoRescue to recover the deleted pictures. That's what it's made for, and it sometimes performs miraculous saves. But you MUST avoid saving anything else to the card until after you've recovered your pictures using PhotoRescue.

With many digital cameras, it's a mistake to use your Mac to delete anything from a memory card. Doing so can leave the card unreadable by the camera, so that it has to be reformatted before it can be used again. Other cameras have no problem using a card that's been erased or had pictures deleted from it in the computer. But the real danger in using your computer to delete photos from your card before you're certain they've been copied to the computer is the situation you now find yourselves in: the pictures weren't successfully imported onto the computer, but they no longer appear on the card either.

Deselect that "Erase camera contents after transfer" checkbox, and leave it deselected permanently. Then if you ever have to abort another import process, your photos will be left untouched on your camera's memory card.

Hello, catdoctor,
Welcome to the discussions!

Did you by chance check the box in iPhoto when beginning import that says 'delete photos on camera after import' ?